Keep It Simple

December Daily - Day 13

 
Lights! Camera! Reindeer! Action!

Decorating the inside of the house may be my thing, but the outside is definitely Kevin's domain. The rain stopped Sunday morning so by the afternoon Kevin was outside with the lights, ladder and his helpers to put up this year McCarthy Light Show. The kid's declared our display as the best on the cul-de-sac. My photos turned out blurry so final display photos are forthcoming.

 
Daddy's Helper

This candy cane didn't last very long. Look at this innocent face... 

December Daily - Day 12

  

Our Christmas Tree

I may not have the photos of picking out this lovely tree but I'm good with that. If you recall we got the tree on December 6th and it took a week to decorate. Mainly since I didn't have enough lights for a 9 1/2 foot tree, or red poinsettias or gold ribbon. Once I got the required decorations, the kids helps put everything on. Our lovely tree smells heavenly and best of all it's waiting for presents to be put under it!
 

December Daily - Day 11

 
Gingerbread House Decorating

This tradition started years ago with three families; the Cohen's, the Hoff's  and the McCarthy's. Between us there are six kids and three adults and each of us decorates our own house. This is our chance to put our artistic abilities to work using gingerbread, frosting (lots of it) and candies. We had 52 assorted candies in all shapes, sizes and colors this year. 

 
Silly Monkeys

Look at these silly kids! They have been friends since the three oldest (all on the left) met in pre-school on September 11, 2001. Yup, our kids started their schooling on 9/11. Maybe that's one of the reason that we are still all friends. Though all three families go to three different schools we still get together every year to decorate our gingerbread houses as well as laugh and giggle as if no time has passed at all. 

December Daily - Day 10

 
A Surprise Visitor!

Kevin's Dad, Jim, surprised us by popping in for dinner! He was in town for meetings and it was a great surprise since we thought he was in Tucson! The kid's were thrilled to see their "Opa" and there was plenty of teasing and as you can see from the photo - matching hats!

December Daily - Day 9

 
The Great Battle

Can you see the huge fight going on? There is you know? Look really closely at Kelly (the white one) and you'll see that her head is resting on a bone. Kelly may look like she's asleep... but she's not. She's laying in wait for Bruno to try to steal it. It's all part of her master plan.

You see Kelly is old and can't move very quickly and Bruno has figured this out. Since Kelly isn't able to chase him around in a good game of keep away this has become their modified version. I love how Bruno has adapted how he plays with her. You can see the excitement on his face. In just a minute he tries to quietly take the bone from Kelly and she growls at him, he jumps away (tail wagging) to try another time. So cute.

December Daily - Day 8

 
The Christmas Card Assembly Line

My two elves hard at work getting our Christmas cards ready to mail. Such good helpers! And cute hats too!

December Daily - Day 7

 

Christmas Books

Every year Collin and Delaney each receive a wrapped Christmas book to open on Christmas Eve (along with Christmas PJs but that'll have to wait until Day 24). So we have a basket STUFFED with books. Some are great stories taken from the Bible, others have beautful illustrations, others makes us laugh and there are a few books that always make me cry (The Littlest Christmas Tree). Each night I try to read one or two. This year Delaney has been picking the books and then we sit in one of the kid's rooms and read them before bed. This is in my Top 3 Christmas traditions. I hope my kids take this one to heart with their own little ones someday - they'll each have a bookshelf full of classics by then!

Delaney and Bruno

Bruno is adjusting well to our household routine. You can find him snuggling with Delaney at bedtime. 

December Daily - The Photo Tragedy (aka Day 6)

 

Why is the photo frame empty you might ask? Because today was the day that tragedy struck. A photographer's worst nightmare - vanishing photos. I knew it was coming but I ignored the signs. The compact flash card started to have fewer space for photos but did I listen to my poor camera's cry for help? No. I figured I could just use the part of the card that was still good. BIG MISTAKE!! We lost all of the Christmassy pictures I took.

Sunday, December 6th was our day to "get some Christmas in" at our house. The kids filled out their annual Letters to Santa (I took some great artsy shots of those). Those photos are gone but at least I have the letters (until I mail them off to Santa that is).

Early in the morning, we headed to Home Depot to pick out for our BIG tree. Gone are the photos of my kids climbing over the trees. Gone are the pictures of Collin picking the tree ALLLLL the way in the very back of the pile and of course gone are the pictures of the kids checking the branches for freshness. Gone are the pictures of Kevin putting the tree on the car. Gone are all of the pictures of this yearly tradition. Some suggested we recreate them so I can photograph it all again, but truthfully in this crazy gymnastics, soccer, all-star soccer, basketball and triathlete family there just isn't time. This is the year we'll have to enjoy the photos of the final result - our great big, huge tree fully decorated with tons of presents underneath it.

I've come to accept it (though it's taken two days). 

So, onward and upward I say! There are still plenty more Christmas traditions to photograph and memories to make - after all there are only 17 days 'til Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everyone! 

December Daily - Day 5

 
Monarchs Gymnastics - Level 4 Team - 2009 Season

This group spends over 12 hours a week in a gym together. We had a party to celebrate their first season of competition. They have a very special bond since they experienced this first  with each other. 

December Daily - Day 4

 

Delaney lost her front left tooth at 1:15am. Yes, she lost her tooth in the middle of the night! She awoke to feel something in her mouth that turned out to be her tooth!

She came into our room and woke me to tell me. She didn't know what to do with the tooth since it was the middle of the night and her special Tooth Box was somewhere in her room. I had her give me the tooth and I placed it on my nightstand and sent her off to bed.

To our surprise the Tooth Fairy came to my bedside and traded the tooth for a gold coin!